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Tour
Front
The Pro9500 is two-toned dark gray, made of mostly plastic with a metal facing to the print trays. This is an improvement over the Pro9000, the $500 dye-ink printer, which is all plastic.
The rectangular front of the printer consists of a dark gray plastic chassis surrounding the sides and bottom with the darker gray metal paper tray door in the center. Three raised dots sit at the center top of the front tray, used for pressing to release the spring-loaded catch to release the door. Below this in the center of the door is the Canon logo. The three control panel buttons are arrayed vertically on the right side panel. The large, chrome Power button sits at the top of the stack, with the same-size Resume / Cancel button resting below it. Both of these buttons have a narrow strip to the left in which sits an LED lamp to indicate the status of the control. Below these two buttons sits the Front Feed button, which is pressed when feeding from the front tray.
Back
The back of the printer is all dark gray plastic, with an indentation on the left that houses the USB B port. Most of the center is taken up by the featureless rear support, which opens via a button on the printer’s top. This tray is for larger paper that is fed through the front paper path. At the bottom right, also inset, is the AC power port for the plug. Also at the bottom are the two plastic wheels that allows for easy movement of the printer by tilting the front up and rolling it to its desired location.
Left Side
Dark gray plastic makes up the left side, with no controls or features.
Right Side
The right side is similarly featureless, except for the USB port visible at the back.
Top
The Pixma Pro 9500 logo is the only prominent feature on the top of the printer. When closed, the top is a series of dark gray panels. The center two panels are the input paper support at the top and the larger top cover in front of that. Each of these is plastic faced with aluminum. The paper support tray is opened via two finger-holds on the right and left side toward the front of the tray. The top cover is lifted from the front after opening the front paper tray.
Interior
Access to the interior of the Pro9500 is gained via the top cover. A large cavity in the center shows the paper rollers and the printer carriage rails. With the power on, the ink cartridge carriage moves from its hidden dock on the far left out into the opening in the center.
Components
Display (0)
The Pro9500 features no display. Aside from status indications from the solid or blinking LED lights adjacent to the Power/Resume buttons, all printer information is monitored through the drivers. (See Setup / Drivers and Software page for more info on drivers.) Among the competition, only the HP Photosmart B9180 has an LCD screen, and this is just a two-line text readout display.
Paper Trays (8.00)
Media handling is well thought out on this printer. The setup is the typical inkjet printer design of the input tray on top and output tray in the front. The front tray opens by pressing on the three raised dots in the top center of the door. This releases a spring-loaded catch, allowing the door to lower slowly to its open position.
The innovation with this printer and the Pro9000 is that the front output tray doubles as an input tray for thicker media (up to 1.2 millimeters). The user just needs to tilt the tray up at an angle and lift straight up to engage it to input mode. A rear door on the printer should be opened to allow the paper to be passed back through the rollers and forward again for printing. Two wings can be released from the front edge to serve as paper supports. This rear door is closed and hidden until needed. A simple button on the top right of the printer releases the door.
Power supply
The Pro9500 has a power plug that attaches to the internal power adapter at the back right of the printer. The port is recessed and protected,
Internal Memory (4.00)
This printer, like the Pro9000, has just enough RAM, 42 kb, to do its job.
This is slightly less than the Epson R2400’s 64 kb and immensely less than the HP B9180’s 64 mb.
Multi-Tasking (2.00)
Multiple jobs can be queued in the Pro9500’s spool, but that is the extent of the multi-tasking.
Hard drive (0)
No internal hard rive comes with this printer or any of its direct competition.
CD Burner (0)
As is the case with most pro-photo printers, there is no CD burner or reader on the Pro9500.
Accessories (7.00)
This and most other pro photo printers are about printing, so accessorizing means buying more ink and more paper. And this is precisely what Canon offers for this printer. Replacement PGI-9 ink cartridges cost $14.99 apiece, with a Value pack (all ten inks) available for $139.99. Various papers are available on the Canon website as well, from 4-by-6-inch size up to the printer’s maximum size of 13-by-19 inches. Not all Canon papers are compatible with this pigment ink printer, so purchase only those that are listed either in the Pro9500 manual or on the Accessories tab of the printer’s page on the Canon website. A list of appropriate papers can be found in the Media Types section of the Print Settings/Options page.
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